CONTACT: Clara Mae Marcotte

512-593-4143

CRIMINOLOGY DEGREE ON CUTTING EDGE

KINGSVILLE (September 10, 1998) -- Texas A&M University-Kingsville now has a full-time criminologist, Paul Randall Vowell, in the bachelor of science in criminology program. Vowell, visiting assistant professor in psychology/sociology, received his bachelor of arts in sociology, his master of science, and is scheduled to receive his Ph.D. specializing in criminology this fall from Mississippi State University. He has worked for the last three years at the Social Science Research Center at M.S.U. doing family and youth studies with the focus on delinquency.

"I don't know of any other bachelor of science in criminology program," Vowell said. "We're on the cutting edge of where a program should go."

Vowell said this degree could be used in areas such as immigration and naturalization, the police, or the military.

"You need a good strong theoretical base if you are going to make policies on the prevention of crime," Vowell said. "Our society has tended to treat crime after the fact rather than design public policies to prevent crime. We have tended towards building more jails and harsher treatments, but these policies have been relatively ineffective.

"When students learn the theoretical base for the causes of crime and criminality, they learn the social context in which crime occurs." He said students who want to get their master's or Ph.D. will be better prepared with a bachelor of science in criminology than with a degree in

criminal justice.

For more information on the program, contact Vowell at 512-593-2701.

-TAMUK-